Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Vertere's cartridge carrier owes more to the ultra-flat arm of the NAD 5120 turntable, launched in late 1983, than to the 'flat-sos' of the 1950s-1970s. More recently still, EAT launched a flat, rigid Kevlar arm to accompany its E-Flat turntable [HFN Jan '12], but only Vertere shares NAD's novel idea of using PCB track – or flexible PCB wiring in this instance – for its tonearm wiring. Unlike the three-layer laminate of Vertere's tonearm, NAD's super-thin flat arm was cut from circuit board material, the idea conceived by designer Jili Janda at the Tesla Research Institute in Prague and NAD's then-Director of Research, Bjorn-Erik Edvardsen.

At the heart of the accompanying 'white paper' was the claim that this arm design could neutralise resonance by means of a reverse wave, a product of the arm's flexibility, fluid damping and a sprung weight. Unfortunately the arm was not universally well received, suffering the epithet of 'the floppy tonearm'. Regardless of how the 5120 sounded – and many thought it was a fine package for the price – commercial pressure obliged NAD to replace the flat arm with a conventional tube. EAT's E-Flat variant is still going strong, so perhaps Vertere will also benefit from today's more enlightened and tolerant hi-fi age. PM